Thomas Day Goodrich (1927–2015) was an American teacher and historian of the
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...
.
Early life
Tom Goodrich was the son of a prominent scholar of Chinese history and language, Luther Carrington Goodrich, who took him to live in China from the ages of 3 to 5. The family then moved back to the United States, where Goodrich attended school and did his military service.
In 1953, he received his master's degree from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
. He wanted to teach overseas, so he accepted a position in Turkey at a middle school for boys, where he taught for four years. He then spent an additional year in Turkey teaching at a high school for girls in
Izmir.
It was during this time abroad that he met his first wife Carol "Rusty" Wright.
Scholarly career
Back in the US, Goodrich began a
doctoral program
A doctorate (from Latin ''docere'', "to teach"), doctor's degree (from Latin ''doctor'', "teacher"), or doctoral degree is an academic degree awarded by universities and some other educational institutions, derived from the ancient formalism ''li ...
in history at Columbia University, where he studied with
Tibor Halasi-Kun (his thesis advisor) and
Peter Gay
Peter Joachim Gay (né Fröhlich; June 20, 1923 – May 12, 2015) was a German-American historian, educator, and author. He was a Sterling Professor of History at Yale University and former director of the New York Public Library's Center for Sch ...
.
With the help of a
Fulbright Scholarship
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people of ...
, Goodrich completed his dissertation, an in-depth study and translation of the
Tarih-i Hindi-i Garbi. This is an illustrated history of the
exploration and conquest of America written by an Ottoman author in the late 16th century. Upon completing his graduate studies, he and Carol Wright were married and he accepted a teaching position at Indiana University of Pennsylvania. An expanded version of his dissertation was published as a book "The Ottoman Turks and the New World" in 1990.
Goodrich went on to bring to light several little-known Ottoman maps and to become an expert on
Piri Reis
Ahmet Muhiddin Piri ( 1465 – 1553), better known as Piri Reis ( tr, Pîrî Reis (military rank), Reis or ''Hacı Ahmet Muhittin Pîrî Bey''), was a Navigation, navigator, Geography in medieval Islam, geographer and Cartography, cartographer. ...
. In the early 1990s he was invited by the Topkapi Saray Museum Library to prepare a catalogue their map collection, which he published in ''
Imago Mundi
''Imago Mundi'', or in full ''Imago Mundi: International Journal for the History of Cartography'', is a semiannual peer-reviewed academic journal about mapping, established in 1935 by Leo Bagrow. It covers the history of early maps, cartography, ...
''.
[
Since 1967, Goodrich taught history at ]Indiana University of Pennsylvania
Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) is a public research university in Indiana County, Pennsylvania. As of fall 2021, the university enrolled 7,044 undergraduates and 1,865 postgraduates, for a total enrollment of 9,009 students. The univ ...
. In 1973 he was elected chair of the University Senate. He retired in 1994 with emeritus status.
References
External links
Complete bibliography of Thomas D. Goodrich
in the ''Journal of Ottoman Studies'', 39, 2012.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Goodrich, Thomas Day
20th-century American historians
American male non-fiction writers
Columbia University alumni
Scholars of Ottoman history
Historians of cartography
1927 births
2015 deaths
20th-century American male writers